Chapter 1527 — Orchid Heart, Elegant Nature

Everyone gazed at those enormous divine weapons, and their hearts were shaken to the core. These divine weapons were treasures forged by the mighty ones of the past universe out of the savings of a lifetime; the materials that went into them were the finest materials those mighty ones had spent their whole lives hunting down. Every one of these treasures was the equal of the divine bow — several of them were mightier still! The mighty ones of the past universe had hoped to rely on such treasures to escape the great calamity of destruction, and in the future universe to remain high above all others, to become its rulers. Even the present Heavenly Court could not produce more than a few of the materials used to forge such treasures — after all, the Heavenly Court had only just descended upon the Ancestral Court, and the divine ores of the Ancestral Court had only just begun to be mined. The mighty ones of the past universe, by contrast, had stripped their own universe bare before they could forge such terrifying treasures. And now these weapons had simply been scooped up by Shen Mu, who meant to forge his own divine sword with them! Just what kind of divine sword could require so many precious treasures? Some of the treasures still bore bloodstains; from others hung severed arms — Shen Mu must have cut off their arms and never troubled to remove them. Wei Suifeng and the others let out a breath of relief. They had always feared that Shen Mu had lost his reason; but now it seemed he had lost nothing of the sort — on the contrary, he was calm to a degree that made one feel dread, a creeping horror. Of course, reason was no bad thing; but too much reason was not entirely a good thing either. Too much reason, and one would lose much of the joy of living, and abandon many of one's own pursuits. Take the Divine King Langwan: it was precisely because she was too reasonable that she had cut away her own feelings; every action she took proceeded from the interests of her own race. She had no love, no kinship — only the great love of her race. And now Shen Mu was showing signs of the same. "Youyou, just now the Crown Prince Youming and I examined our junior brother's battle traces, and we found that his reason and calm have reached a terrifying degree. This is not a good sign." Wei Suifeng said in a low voice to Granny Zhu: "He is casting off his own feelings. If this goes on, he will become another Divine King Langwan." Granny Zhu nodded slowly and said: "Rest assured, Shen'er will not become that. His nature has always been cheerful." Wei Suifeng said softly: "It is hard to say. From whom did he learn that cheerful nature? What if that person is gone?" A pain struck Granny Zhu's heart. In Hidden Maimed Village, the most cheerful of them all had been the Lame Old Man, always looking as if nothing mattered, always grinning in a way that begged for a beating — and even when beaten, he would soon act as though nothing had happened. Back in the village, Old Master Huo had been stern, the Village Head melancholy, the Butcher mad, the Blind Old Man lecherous, the Silent Craftsman wicked, the Deaf Old Man proud, the Alchemist utterly shameless, and Granny Zhu herself mysterious in her comings and goings and steeped in an air of evil — only the Lame Old Man was a good-for-nothing with no heart and no lungs, who spent every day running wild with Shen Mu. Shen Mu's cheerfulness was learned from him. "He will be cheerful again." Granny Zhu repeated: "He certainly will." "Grandpa Silent Craftsman, can these divine weapons be recast and forged into a divine sword?" Shen Mu was asking the Silent Craftsman in the distance. The Silent Craftsman studied the divine weapons carefully, his face grave. He examined them one by one, then shook his head: "These divine weapons are too powerful; their might is very hard to erase. And even if the might could be erased, there is no Dao fire fierce enough to melt them down and forge them anew. I use my dantian as a furnace and have cultivated a whole body of Dao fire, but I still do not have that kind of strength." Shen Mu asked: "What if we forged them at the Southern Pole Heaven's ancestral land of Dao fire?" The Silent Craftsman's eyes lit up. He nodded slowly: "If we forged them at the ancestral land of Dao fire, then it could be done. The Great Dao might within these divine weapons would surely all be burned and melted away. Only, that ancestral land of Dao fire is in the hands of the Fire Heavenly Venerable..." "It is no longer in the Fire Heavenly Venerable's hands." Shen Mu gathered the divine weapons into his primordial fetus divine repository and said: "The ancestral land of Dao fire was seized by the Moon Heavenly Venerable during the Battle of Xuandu and exiled. Where exactly it was exiled to, only the Moon Heavenly Venerable can say. I will set out at once for the Land of No Sorrow to see the Moon Heavenly Venerable." Granny Zhu said at once: "Shen'er, I will go with you to the Land of No Sorrow!" The Silent Craftsman hesitated, then said: "I will go too." Shen Mu said: "Grandpa Silent Craftsman, stay here — you still have the Azure Heaven Banner to repair. And Granny is needed to instruct Hua Xuanxiu and Patriarch Wenyuan. I can go alone." Granny Zhu laughed: "Others may stay behind, but I must go! I want to see what Langwan and the Moon Heavenly Venerable look like — whether they are pretty." Shen Mu could not persuade her to change her mind, and so let her have her way. To Xu Shenghua he said: "These past days have been a great trouble to you, Brother Xu." Xu Shenghua said: "Where righteousness lies, duty permits no refusal. Besides, I do not care for running about; to be able to stay here is a stroke of good fortune." Shen Mu left him the leaves of Taiyi's Dao Tree, to be kept for a time of need; he also left the divine bow behind, entrusting it to Wei Suifeng, and gave the Glazed Azure Heaven Banner to the Crown Prince Youming to hold in his keeping. He had also meant to leave Taiyi's staff behind, for Lan Yutian to hold in his stead, but Lan Yutian shook his head: "Taiyi wants you to follow the map and save him; perhaps it has something to do with this staff. Carry it with you for now." Shen Mu did not press him, and put the staff away. He made ready to leave Black Mountain. Granny Zhu packed her baggage and quickly caught up with him, laughing: "I hear the Divine King Langwan is a very beautiful girl." Shen Mu grunted in assent. Granny Zhu said again: "I hear the Moon Heavenly Venerable is very beautiful too — ethereal and elegant." Shen Mu grunted again. "The Supreme Emperor's female Sword God is a fine-looking one as well." Granny Zhu went on: "I have seen her. Though she is of the dragon race, she has an orchid heart and an elegant nature." Shen Mu grunted again. Granny Zhu quickened her steps to keep up with him. Shen Mu employed the Moon Heavenly Venerable's divine art; he brought out the Supreme Void Scripture, contracting space itself, so that they traveled with extraordinary speed. "Emperor Yanxiu is endowed with the beauty and spirit of heaven and earth, and is a remarkable woman as well." Granny Zhu said: "And Heavenly Venerable Ling — I wonder what she looks like?" Shen Mu halted and said helplessly: "Granny, what exactly are you trying to say?" Granny Zhu laughed: "I am old now, and if I do not have a child in my arms I always feel empty." "Granny, of all the women you just named, apart from Yanxiu, which one is not many times older than you?" Shen Mu said: "A great man in this world — if he cannot bring peace to the four quarters, how can he have a family..." Granny Zhu flew into a rage. Before he could finish, she snatched up Taiyi's staff and rained a dozen blows on his head, shouting angrily: "How can he have a family? How can he have a family? Every day you mutter 'how can he have a family'! Is it wrong for me to want to hold a grandchild?" Shen Mu clutched his head and fled like a rat. Granny Zhu cha